Re: Can no longer pair Apple Watch with iPhone (watchOS 4)

This morning both my apple watch and iphone were updated to ios 11 and watchos 4. While performance on the iphone was good, the same could not be said for the Apple Watch. So here is the deal: I preceded to unpair my and reset my apple watch. So after minutes of apple logo and loading circles, I get greeted with a screen which tells me to "Bring iPhone near Apple Watch". (This must be a new pairing feature similar to Airpods/Beats X) I followed all the instructions however my Apple Watch could not pair to my iPhone. Apple support told be to restore my iPhone to the latest iOS 10 version which I have meanwhile done. Now however I don't even get the chance to try and pair my apple watch. Not much I can do on the watch as it remains on the screen which tells me "Bring iPhone near Apple Watch".

I was wodnering whether I should update my iPhone to iOS 11 and try the pairing again, or is there any other solution? Has anyone else come across this issue? Every bit of info helps.

watchOS 4 requires your iPhone to be running iOS 11. Therefore, you need to upgrade iPhone to iOS 11 so you can pair it.

Similar to watchOS 3, if you're having issues with the pairing flow, tap the "i" on the watch to enter the manual pairing flow. In addition, please file a bug report regarding this issue so we can better assist on our side.

You can't downgrade the OS version on your Apple Watch yourself. With the last version of watchOS, Apple did allow people to take it into an Apple Store and have it sent off for a couple of days to do this. But there is no way you can do it yourself, unlike the iPhone.

As ebr0wn mentions, you can only pair a watch running watchOS 4 with iOS 11.

Best thing to do would be to wait for the more stable public beta of iOS 11 coming out at the end of June where you will be able to pair your watch again. It does mean your watch will only be able to tell the time until then - no notifications or internet connection!

If you want it sooner then you'll have to upgrade your iPhone again to iOS 11.

Go on your iPhone and sign out of iMessage. Was having same problem and this fixed it for me. Still took ~4 minutes to get past that Apple ID screen but it did work. If this still doesn't work try signing out of iCloud altogether.

if you're hitting this, we'd love to get more information to investigate further. Please use Bug Reporter to file a report and please include a sysdiagnose taken from your iPhone after reproducing the failed pairing session.

Submitted a bug report (rdar://33416223) today with configurations, screenshots, steps to reproduce and sysdiagnose. Hope this helps get the issue resolved soon! Wasn't exactly sure where to file it (whether iOS + SDK or watchOS + SDK or as a hardware issue), so I ended up classifying as watchOS + SDK.

That's a good idea.. Haven't tried this yet. I had a hardware issue and am now using a different iPhone 7+ and I'm seeing three different restore options when I try to pair my Apple Watch to the New iPhone, but I'm not seeing a Backup of the Apple Watch on watchOS 4, just the latest release of 3, which I'd think should still technically work, but doesn't. I tried setting it up as new, too, but that just fails and says to try again. I've seen others post that you just have to keep trying lol but that hasn't worked for me... I did make sure that the proper Dev Profiles are installed, and I am running iOS 11 b2, too. I guess I'll keep trying? Haven't tried rebooting the watch yet, though.

I am having this issue too. Unable to pair. I’m using watchos 4 beta 3 and iOS 11 beta 3. I unpaired the watch from the watch app in the iPhone 7 because the Bluetooth headset was not playing nice. I had two of the same Bluetooth headsets in settings and wouldn’t play to either. When I re-pair it, I can progress past the initial language screen on the watch and the connecting screen the iPhone app, then I choose wrist side and the app continues to the “activating” screen and the watch face says “setting language “ then it fails back to the pair screen. I have tried about 20 times now. I tried pairing with an iPhone 6 iOS 11 beta 3 and exact same issue so it must be the watch. I’ve tried the suggestion to turn off iMessage and iCloud all together, still nothing. I have restarted the watch and the iPhone. Reset network settings on iPhone. Erased all contents and setting on the iPhone. Tried a different language on the watch. Nothing worked. Seams like an issue with the watch so I am pretty stuck since I cannot upload a new firmware or erase the watch without a way to plug it into the Mac. Does it sound like I will have to send it into Apple?

I kept trying and it worked. I kept trying to force press the screen and reset to factory settings. I was out walking and on 4G connection. I just worked and didn’t need to play with the language settings. I can’t explain it. Must have been force resetting it several times and closing the app on the phone or a combination of all those things in the right sequence and a little help from the serenity prayer. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change ...

My iPhone is running iOS 11 beta 4 with 5 trying to download. But my Apple Watch is on watchOS 3. They won’t pair since I updated to ios11 and so I can’t update my watch to watchOS 4. Which means I’m stuck right? Help please

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